Venus to put on Sun spectacular - Planet Venus is set to move across the face of the Sun as viewed from Earth.
The more than six-and-a-half-hour transit, which starts just after 22:00 GMT (23:00 BST) on Tuesday is a very rare astronomical phenomenon that will not be witnessed again until 2117.
Observers will position themselves in northwest America, the Pacific, and East Asia to catch the whole event.
But some part of the spectacle will be visible across a much broader swathe of Earth's surface, weather permitting.
--Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Follow Venus as it transits the sun -- on your smartphone - The app allows citizen scientists to see where on Earth the transit is visible and at what times. It also lets users record their own observations about the transit of Venus -- noting when it hits the edge of the sun -- and share pictures of the transit via Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube.
The app makers are framing the app as way to re-create the 1769 experiment when European nations sent scientists on ships to observe the transit from various points on the globe in the hopes of getting enough data to determine how far the Earth is from the sun.
--Deborah Netburn, LA Times
Also See Neon Vincent's:Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Venus Transit, Partial Eclipse, and Total Recall edition)
Welcome to the Overnight News Digest
(graphic by palantir)
The OND is published each night around midnight, Eastern Time.
The originator of OND was Magnifico.
Regular editors are jlms qkw, Bentliberal, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, with occasional guest stints from maggiejean and annetteboardman. NeonVincent edits on Saturdays and serves as chief cat herder.
CA primary could pick 'birther' to face Feinstein - A novel California primary that premieres Tuesday was intended to produce moderates, but in California's U.S. Senate race, it could yield a challenger who claims President Obama was born in Kenya.
Incumbent Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 78, running for a fourth full term, faces 23 challengers, including 14 Republicans, the best known of whom is litigious Orange County "birther" Orly Taitz, a Russian Israeli emigre who has appeared on national television with her claims that Obama faked his birth certificate.
...
Whoever finishes second Tuesday, from any party, wins the chance to take on Feinstein in November.
A second-place finish by Taitz would be seen in both parties as a national embarrassment for the Republican Party, rivaling the candidacy of Christine "I am not a witch" O'Donnell, the 2010 GOP Senate nominee in Delaware.
--Carolyn Lochhead, sfgate.com
Death penalty dilemma dividing Taiwan - In 1997 a Taiwanese soldier was executed for murder, despite there being no evidence against him.
The authorities last year admitted he was innocent and compensated his family, but legal experts warn a similar tragedy could happen again under the current judicial system.
Chiang Kuo-ching was convicted of raping and killing a five-year-old girl. He was one of two soldiers who worked in the same building as the girl's mother, and had failed a lie detector test because he was scared.
He insisted he was innocent, but was executed at the age of 21.
After a long campaign by his parents, investigators reopened the case in 2010 and indicted a man with a history of sexual offences last year.
The government admitted Mr Chiang was tortured into confessing and late last year apologised to his family.
Despite this alarming case, Taiwan's judges continue to sentence defendants to death with no material evidence, such as fingerprints or DNA, experts say.
Instead, they rely mainly on confessions or co-defendants' statements, and routinely accept as evidence police interrogations that are not recorded or videotaped, even though the law requires recordings to prevent police torture, lawyers and others say.
--Cindy Sui BBC News, Taipei
George Soros says three months to save the euro - Billionaire investor George Soros has warned European leaders they have a "three-month window" to save the euro.
He said he believed Greece would elect a government willing to abide by loan conditions imposed by the EU in this month's elections.
But he said the German economy would begin to weaken in the autumn, making it much harder for Chancellor Angela Merkel to provide further support.
He said leaders did not understand "the nature of the crisis".
...
"You cannot reduce the debt burden by shrinking the economy, only by growing your way out of it," he added.Nato has signed deals with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to use their territory for evacuating vehicles and military equipment from Afghanistan.
Mr Soros, speaking at a conference in Italy, was referring to the drastic austerity measures that have been implemented across Europe
See Also: Five ways the eurozone could break up
--BBC
Nato signs deal to move Afghan equipment via Central Asia - Nato has signed deals with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to use their territory for evacuating vehicles and military equipment from Afghanistan.
The agreement will allow the military alliance to bypass Pakistan, which has blocked Nato from using its territory in a disagreement over drone strikes.
Nato will begin pulling troops and equipment out of Afghanistan in earnest later this year.
This deal means it can return equipment to Europe overland via Russia.
--BBC
Elite Forces Denied in Bid for Expansion - In late April, the military’s Special Operations Command presented the State Department and Congress with an urgent request for new authority to train and equip security forces in places like Yemen and Kenya.
The request, which included seeking approval to train foreign internal security forces that had been off-limits to the American military, was the latest effort by the command’s top officer, Adm. William H. McRaven, to make it easier for his elite forces to respond faster to emerging threats and better enable allies to counter the same dangers.
Given the command’s influence in shaping American strategy toward extremism, the proposal seemed to have momentum. President Obama and his Pentagon’s leadership are tapping Special Operations troops more to hunt militants and train foreign security forces in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. And Admiral McRaven is a White House favorite, especially after he oversaw the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
But in a rare rebuke to the admiral and his command, powerful House and Senate officials as well as the State Department, and ultimately the deputy cabinet-level aides who met at the White House on the issue on May 7, rejected the changes.
--ERIC SCHMITT, nytimes
TV star Richard Dawson dies at 79
(AP PHOTO) - Richard Dawson won an Emmy Award in 1978 for best game show host
Richard Dawson, the English-born actor and TV host who found fame in the US at the helm of game show Family Feud and in sitcom Hogan's Heroes, has died.
A former husband of actress Diana Dors, Dawson was 79.
Born in Gosport, Hampshire, he played Corporal Peter Newkirk in World War II comedy Hogan's Heroes for six years.
He became a panelist on TV show Match Game before hosting Family Feud for 10 years.
--BBC
Richard Dawson in war-time comedy Hogan's Heroes (Picture: Getty)